KATHMANDU, July 25

Most of the leaders of the CPN-UML on Saturday said that the party should stick to its stance of directly elected prime minister as suggested by the majority of the people.

While addressing the politburo meeting of the party, the leaders also voiced for religious freedom instead of secularism. However, sources said Secretary Pradip Gyawali said the party should not backtrack from secularism issue now.

According to Krishna Gopal Shrestha, a member of the party secretariat, the first person who rooted for secularism was former general secretary of the party Madan Bhandari.

Shrestha said during on Saturday’s politburo meeting, the assessment report of National Volunteers’ Campaign was distributed.

He said the central committee meeting of the party that would begin from tomorrow would endorse the decisions taken by the standing committee meetings. The daylong meeting would also finalise the regulation to run the party besides reviewing the political developments following the 16-point agreement of June 8.